Serj Tankian Premieres Video For ‘Figure It Out’

What does Serj Tankian’s self-produced politically-satirical single from Harakiri called “Figure It Out” want you to figure out exactly? Judging from the new video, it wants to “occupy” your mind with the travesty that is economic disparity, unjust social tiers, and corporate tyranny.

In the artistically fuzzy amateur video directed by Ara Soudjian, Tankian stands in front of a Wall Street stock exchange screen with his band while old men with cigars drink champagne with gorgeous All-American looking gold diggers.

In between all that, the video shows a bunch of normal, cool-looking young people singing the title, “Figure It Out.” For them, figuring it out means storming the offices of the hedonistic, morally-corrupt suits and bringing their own kind of political “party,” albeit an enraged one.

In the song, Tankian sings about “technology” and materialism” and he elaborated more on that in an interview with KROQ/Los Angeles by highlighting the different environmental shifts the earth has been experiencing, specifically animals inexplicably dying.

“It was really hard to believe and it was just like this major omen,” Tankian explained. “I was trying to make sense of it; spiritually, psychologically, what all of it meant. All of the scientific explanations given for the deaths have been bogus so far. They’re kind of funny if you really read them. From firecrackers to not enough oxygen in the bay.”

“When we’re about to experience an earthquake, for example, fish that are in aquariums start jumping out. They know before the earthquake happens,” elaborated Tankian. “Animals, dogs; before a tsunami they run to higher places. They have a better intuitive sense tied in with nature than we do.”

“I think we used to have that, but we kind of lost it in what we call civilization; in the kind of growth of our psychological realm and technology and all this reasoning and science,” continued Tankian. “So, to me, it’s interesting that all of those species found life unbearable in some ways because there’s no other explanation than suicide.”

“That’s really scary for us because if it’s not good enough for them than what does it really mean for us in terms of pollution, in terms of the way we live, in terms of the times to come?”

Serj Tankian’s Harakiri is scheduled for release on July 10, 2012. Harakiri is presently available for pre-order on the singer’s official website. $2 from the sale of each pre-order will be donated to a non-profit organization to fight global hunger.